(Posted by: Eric Rees)
Well readers, it seems to be the summer of betas for your reporter here. First I got invited to Google Music, then Google+, then the holy grail: I got to play the Alpha and will be playing the beta for the upcoming FPS, Battlefield 3.
But now, I have been invited to dive headfirst into Call of Duty's new web-browser based service, simply called "Elite." Attached are only going to be a few pictures but there will be lots of description and my take on the whole thing. Hit the break to get "elite" with me.
But now, I have been invited to dive headfirst into Call of Duty's new web-browser based service, simply called "Elite." Attached are only going to be a few pictures but there will be lots of description and my take on the whole thing. Hit the break to get "elite" with me.
Elite is basically Bungie.net but on steroids. Once logged in, you connect your gamertag or PSN ID to the account and they go to work in the background pulling up all of your statistics, and I mean all of them. Call of Duty knows exactly how many shots to the groin area you've had with the M16, the SPAS and they know how many times you've banked a Tomahawk off a wall and killed someone. The amount of number crunching here is impressive. Rounding out the 'Career' tab is a 'Recent Games' that can give you a surprisingly deep breakdown of the last game you just played, from your KDR all the way to where on the map you got your kills and you had your deaths. There is also a section that shows you all of your personal best numbers and your performance with all of the guns in CoD. At the bottom of the page is the area where your screenshots are proudly displayed and there's even a space to show your videos that you've made, which you can now link with a Youtube account. All of this is available now for Black Ops, under a "Coming this fall" tab there is a place where you can access your MW3 stats as well. Exciting.
But the main push of Elite is the next two tabs, 'Connect' and 'Compete.' And thus is why I have no pictures for these areas. 'Connect' is CoD's way of pushing players together to get them to interact and show up each other on how many crossbow kills they have. Groups can easily be made and invite people to them, each group having a leader board of who has the most kills and a message board where players can interact. But if you aren't cool enough to come up with your own group, Elite has provided a few pre-made groups (so far based on Cities, Universities and Baseball teams) that you can join up. So far, the Indianapolis group is a 'Regiment' now since we passed the 100 member mark. Under another "Coming soon" tab is the ability for clans underneath this section of the website, that will be interesting to see how that is implemented.
'Compete' is Elite's mashup of a Halo: Reach style Challenges of the Day and Xbox Live's push to get people to interact in real time. Here you can find a slew of challenges that you can 'enlist' for and then compete against other people. There are prizes and badges that await the winners and when I mean prizes, I don't just mean Call of Duty points. The people who win these competitions will win real life prizes. Up for grabs right now is an iPad 2, a nice OGIO backpack and a trip to Call of Duty XP this fall. You interested yet?
Finally there is the 'Improve' tab that basically takes any strategy guide, makes fun of it's mother, burns it's own paper pages and then moves onto Elite's website for you. This blows me away, they have breakdowns on every single map, gun, sidearm, grenade, perks and killstreaks for you. When I mean breakdown I mean break. Down. Each primary weapon even has a 5 minute video giving you the pros and cons on each and then they'll suggest a good perk loadout for that fun to maximize your pwnage. It's crazy, but I love it. I've already watched most of the videos on here, and plan to do many more. My M14 lethality went up dramatically after implementing some of the tips from this site.
So there you go, a rundown of Call of Duty Elite, a very slick website with deep statistics to keep any die-hard Call of Duty fan coming back for more. Try and sign up for the beta now, they might let you in early. Stay tuned to Gameshoe for more updates throughout the fall and a comparison between Elite and Battlelog.
So there you go, a rundown of Call of Duty Elite, a very slick website with deep statistics to keep any die-hard Call of Duty fan coming back for more. Try and sign up for the beta now, they might let you in early. Stay tuned to Gameshoe for more updates throughout the fall and a comparison between Elite and Battlelog.
